Allegra LaViola Gallery is pleased to present Memory from Sight, an exhibition of recent paintings and drawings by Jennifer Riley, on view from March 27- April 27, 2013. An essay by Stephanie Buhmann, New York based independent art critic, historian and curator, is included in a publication that will accompany the exhibition. A public reception for the artist will be held on March 27th from 6-8PM.The exhibition features several large-scale paintings, smaller paintings, pastels and ink drawings. Over the past fifteen years Riley has produced chromatically brilliant abstract paintings that deploy line, plane and color in works of ‘impure’ geometric abstraction with crystalline forms and a Pop aesthetic. Riley has always sought ways to suggest the human presence in geometric abstraction, so that even her most hard-edged, linear works appear organic. Now Riley has intentionally expanded the characteristics of her lines and planes, and activated her grounds to create an unusual all over spatial movement. The new works color palettes enliven biomorphic shapes that seem to be simultaneously floating and tethered to an unseen structure. With a greater diversity of touch and process and with an alert attention to the material qualities of oil paint, Riley is able to combine an eclectic array of aesthetic inspirations ranging from cultural treasures to nature and the everyday.The works are achieved through a process of response and reflection that also allows for unexpected outcomes and chance to intrude in place of more rigorous planning and stricter self-imposed rules. To begin each painting, Riley makes several experimental exploratory ink or pastel drawings on paper from observation and memory. Riley analyzes and responds to this information, often making new drawings to arrive at structures, using a quirky formal logic as much as feeling and whim. Where earlier images with wobbly forms implied a sense of the subtle shifts underpinning the world, the new paintings boldly suggest notions of change, flux and fluidity in images that are more unnamable, complex and layered. For Riley the works always stand for more than one thing. Sometimes they tilt towards a sense of our planet or a persona, sometimes more a feeling of night music or sometimes – a long walk into the woods.Jennifer Riley received her BFA in Painting from The School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, MA Tufts University Medford, MA and her MFA from The Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College Annandale On Hudson, NY. She has exhibited at Lennon Weinberg, NYC,; Jason McCoy NYC; Heskin Contemporary NYC,; Janet Kurnatowski, Brooklyn and at RISD, Providence RI; Boston University, Boston, MA; Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ ; Harvard Design School, Cambridge, MA. Hosfstra University NY, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond,VA. Her work has been reviewed on Artcritical.com; The Boston Glove; The Boston Herald, The New York Sun, The New York Times and The New York Observer, The Downtown Express. This is her third solo exhibition with Allegra LaViola Gallery.